About the Project

Transcribe is the Library of Virginia’s collaborative online workspace where the public can participate in enhancing access to many of our amazing collections documenting over 400 years of Virginia history, people, and culture. This is the perfect opportunity for participants to dig deep into our collections and transcribe historical materials from five to ten active projects at a time. From peace to wartime, court records to letters home, and conspiracies to political statements, there will be something for everyone.

Crowdsourcing empowers communities to make their own history; the Library – leveraging advancements in open source transcription tools and projects developed by our peers – supports this empowerment by inviting the public to be our partners in making our collections more visible and more accessible. Help us tell the narrative of all Virginians – the famous, infamous and even anonymous – and join us in Making History.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Dominion Virginia Power.

Tips

Save your work frequently. If you don’t save before you navigate away from the page, your work may be lost!

Copy the text as is, including punctuations, misspellings and abbreviations. If you can’t resist correcting spelling mistakes, please enter the correctly spelled word in brackets after the misspelled word: Carlottesville [Charlottesville].

If you aren’t sure of a word but want to guess, indicate with square brackets and a question mark, e.g. [town?]; If you can't make out a word at all, use [illegible]. If you spot [illegible] in an already started transcription, feel free to correct it if you know what the word is.

No need to account for formatting (e.g. spacing, line breaks, alignment); the goal is to provide text for searching. Do not transcribe hyphens or spaces in words that occur at line breaks.

Do not transcribe text that has been crossed out.

When transcribing parts of the letter that were written around the edge of the paper or perhaps written cross-wise on the paper add information in brackets to the end of the document. For example add the transcribed information to the end of the letter and write [written at the top of page 1] or [written across page 1]

Consider the context. If you’re having trouble with a word or passage, read “around” it and think about what a likely word would be, or look for other letters and spellings in the document that are similar.

Want more space to type and view the document? Expanding your display is a short (20 second) video showing you how to make that happen.

Common eighteenth and nineteenth-century abbreviations and their full spellings include:

&c = et cetera

inst. = a date in this month (e.g. the 15th inst.)

ult. = a date in the previous month (5th ult.)

Common “misspellings” and writing conventions:

attacted = attacked

do = ditto

evning = evening

evry = every

fiew = few

fs = ss (e.g. mifses = misses)

greaddeal or great eal or gread eal = great deal

perhapse = perhaps

M.B.A.

verry = very

ware = were

Common Civil War abbreviations:

Adjt. = Adjutant

Brig. = Brigade

Capt. = Captain

Cav. = Cavalry

Col. = Colonel

Col. Inf. = Colored Infantry

HdQrs. = Head Quarters

Inf. = Infantry

Lieut. or Lt. = Lieutenant

Maj. = Major

Prov.Gen. = Provost General

QM = Quarter Master

Regt. = Regiment

R.R. = railroad

Vols. = Volunteers

Common name abbreviations:

Andw = Andrew

Jos = Joseph/Josiah

SD = son of Daniel *

Archd = Archibald

Mich = Michael

SL = son of Lazarus *

Augt = August/Augustin

Nathe, Nathl, Natl = Nathaniel

SM = son of Martin *

Benj – Benjamin

Richd, Rich’d = Richard

SN = son of Nicholas *

Chas = Charles

Ro = Robert

SW = son of William *

Jas = James

SA = son of Arthur *

Thos = Thomas

Jno = John

Saml = Samuel

Wm = William

*is of Welsh extraction

There are also a lot of Web sites available that list common historic/archaic abbreviations used in the military and medical communities.

Contact us at makinghistory[at]virginiamemory[dot]com for more specific questions/problems or if you have some tips to share with us.

Have you been transcribing, enjoying the process, and wonder how you can help in another way? Find out more information about the approval process and how you can help as an approver.

FAQ

Q: Do I have to register?
A: No, registration is optional but encouraged. It will allow you to revisit the documents you’ve worked on previously. Registered users may eventually be asked to approve transcriptions if the load gets too heavy for staff!

Q: I’m stuck! What do I do??
A: Just tweet to @LibraryofVA or use the hashtag #LVAtranscribe and we’ll respond as soon as possible. You can also email us directly at makinghistory[at]virginiamemory[dot]com.

Q: What happens to finished transcriptions?
A: Transcriptions of entire documents, once complete and approved, will be downloaded and added to our digital collections (http://digitool1.lva.lib.va.us:8881/R/) as full-text for searching and PDFs for download.